News

Roy sprints to fourth for ORICA-SCOTT women on final stage of the Tour of Chongming Island

Sun 7 May 2017

After taking third on the opening stage of the Tour of Chongming Island Australian sprinter Sarah Roy showed her form again today, claiming a hard fought fourth place on the final stage in China.

ORICA-SCOTT came into the race and knew what to expect from the rightly proclaimed ‘Sprinters Paradise’ and collectively performed well over the three days of competition.

The final stage and the overall was won by Jolien D’Hoore (Wiggle-High5) after yet another bunch sprint sealed the day, Roy jumped the wheel of a fast moving Alex Manly and finished in fourth place on the stage and on the general classification.

“I am changing my opinion of this race,” said Sport director Martin Barras. “Over the last six or seven years the economic growth has really seen the region and infrastructure develop in a positive way. The organisation and security within the race is vastly improved and it is great to see and be a part of.”

“The girls raced very well today, we wanted to make amends for stage two and we were intelligent and controlled throughout the stage. There was quite a lot of gamesmanship coming from the GC teams and the chase of the day’s breakaway fortunately as we were here for stage objectives we could hitch a ride on the back.

“We worked very hard going into the finale with a coordinated effort from our sprint train and a tough fight for position. Unfortunately a moment’s hesitation from Sarah when she jumped onto Alex’s wheel meant that the other sprinters came past, carrying more momentum into the last 100metres.”

Third place on the races opening stage saw Roy mount the podium and achieve the teams main objective of a good stage result with the added bonus of a top five general classification finish in a UCI Women’s WorldTour race.

“Overall we are happy with our performance here over the last three days,” concluded Barras. “We came into the race with the objective of reaching the podium, which we did on stage one and the desire to improve our sprint train, we are getting closer to the mark and it’s satisfying to see the that we only need to make small adjustments to see the improvements.”

“By and large it has been a positive experience for the girls, finishing high up on the general classification was not completely on our radar and I’m happy that we can leave the race with so many positives.”

How it happened:

Today’s third and final stage covered 111.6kilometres across the Western part of the Island with two intermediate sprint points and a mountains sprint available.

In keeping with the previous two days of racing the stage was setting itself up for a bunch sprint almost from the flag drop. After some early attacks the field was together over the first 20kilometres until a breakaway quartet formed and began to develop a lead.

Two minutes separated the field for much of the race until the peloton started to chase hard inside the final 20kilometres.

Repeated attacks from WM3 finally brought the front of the race back together before Valentina Scandolara went clear with ten kilometres to go and created some tension across the field.

Giving everything the Italian still led into the final five kilometres with ORICA-SCOTT now part of the chase, finally caught under the Flamme Rouge Scandolara could do nothing to stop the inevitable bunch sprint.

Kirsten Wild (Cylance-Pro-Cycling) hit out early, but was passed by D’Hoore who sealed the stage and the race victory with Roy in fourth for ORICA-SCOTT.